Thursday, January 19, 2017

Pune, January 19, 2017: After two years of successful execution of their grassroots programs, the Rajesh Wadhawan owned Indian Super League franchise FC Pune City will continue the development of football at the grassroots level in a structured manner. The club has created a comprehensive plan to build a strong football framework within the Pune region. With a clear intent of providing professional opportunities to learn and participate in the sport, the focus will also be on nurturing talent by providing them progression platforms from an early age.

In 2017, the club’s approach to grassroots will be two-fold, led by technical director Roger Lamesa (UEFA Pro-coach), where they will conduct various programmes under FC Pune City Grassroots banner and work with the Indian Super League’s mandate for every club of talent scouting with the aim of shortlisting candidates for the Reliance Foundation Young Champs programme and also create a youth league in the city.

In addition to having a full-time residential academy, the club will conduct multiple programs including Train the Trainer, School Workshops, Grassroots Festivals; thereby adding more firepower to their junior squads. At present FC Pune City is the only ISL team to boast of a residential academy. The Club presently has 4 junior teams that trains throughout the years under guidance of its coaches – U-18; U-16; U-14 and Women’s team.

“We need to align and integrate all the raw talent and nurture them from a young age which in turn will catapult the city of Pune into the new hub of Indian football. It’s a young city and there is definitely enough potential. The need of the hour is to provide a platform to the young players through high-level training and development programs. We are continuing with two of our flagship programmes; first being a coaching workshop for coaches, parents, PE teachers and footballers and then followed by a talent scouting & development program,” explained FC Pune City’s CEO Mr. Gaurav Modwel.

FC Pune City will be imparting the quality training programmes with techincal director Roger Lamesa & Youth Team Assistant Coaches by reaching out to schools across the city in the form of workshops.To develop the entire eco-system, they will continue conducting a Train the Trainer programmes where all the PE teachers from 40 schools across the city will come under one roof for a one-day coaching course including theory and practical sessions.

The talent scouting programs will be conducted to spruce up the existing U-12 and U-14 squads. In each of the categories, FC Pune City will be looking out for players who will be part of the talent pools, which will feed players directly into the youth squads. The FC Pune City team will scout and then train the talent at St. Vincent’s High School ground, which is the club’s development center. The U-14 team will eventually represent the club at various Pune District Football Association (PDFA) and All India Football Federation (AIFF) tournaments.

Starting this year, in lieu of the league’s mandate, FC Pune City will introduce Youth Leagues in Pune under its community development platform, Forces of Football. The newly formed Youth League will be conducted in three different age groups, i.e. U14, U-12 and U-9.

The Reliance Foundation Youth Champs program will also be executed during this time frame. In the 2016 edition, FC Pune City touched 48 schools, 33 academies that got them over 5000 kids participating in their grassroots program. The ultimate culmination of the efforts saw 118 kids participate in the Reliance Foundation Youth Champs festival, overseen by Piet Hubers, Technical Director, ISL Grassroots Development Programme.

Last year, the club’s efforts on grassroots initiatives went across 40 schools in Pune tapping close to 40,000 kids. This was followed up with seven scouting programs for over 2500 selected kids.

About FC Pune City:

FC Pune City is an Indian Super League football club based out of Pune, Maharashtra. The club is co-owned by The Rajesh Wadhawan Group and Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan. The club was founded in 2014 and its home ground is the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune. The club is committed to making a difference not just at the senior level but also at the grassroots level of football in India.

Happy new year!! Welcome to the January Edition of the UK Science and Innovation Network in India’s Newsletter. In this edition we cover the India UK Technology Summit, which was held in New Delhi from 7- 9 Nov’16, and bought together the most exciting thought leaders, businesses, educational institutions and innovators to connect and explore the future of India-UK collaboration.

Dr Michael Messenger, Head of the Leeds Centre for Personalised Medicine and Health, was in India in November 2016 as part of our Precision Medicine delegation during the Tech Summit. In his blog he captures potential UK-India collaboration opportunities in the precision medicine space as well as his overall India experience. Read more…

Swati Saxena, Senior Advisor Science & Innovation, covers the way ahead following the visit of UK experts in Precision Agriculture at the Tech Summit. She writes about the potential of Precision Agriculture and strengthen the UK India partnership.

The Industry Academia Partnership Programme aims to support Indian universities in improving their engineering education and research output through strengthening industry linkages and leveraging UK expertise. For more details please visit here…

Team India after a horror start

Yuvraj hits century

(live-PR.com) – One day cricket match between India and England is being played at Barabati stadium in Cuttack today. India are leading the 3-match series 1-0. The hosts defeated England in the first ODI at Pune on Sunday and will aim for a series clinching victory in the day and night match today. Virat Kohli leading continues his quest for runs

with the bat.

KL Rahul to open the innings along with Shikhar Dhawan, with Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey waiting on the sidelines. Chris Woakes to bowl the first over of the match. A cracking start for India as Rahul crashes the first ball he faces through the covers for a four and then turns the fifth ball on the leg side for one and Dhawan also takes a quick single to get off the mark. Dhawan out after he throws his bat at a wide and an inside edge which goes back on his stumps.Woakes strikes with the first ball of the second over. Rahul is squared up as he looks to defend one which moves away but gets an edge which is nicely taken by the second slip fielder. Rahul is dismissed for five for his second successive failure in the series. Skipper Virat Kohli in middle as England look to try something different for the in-form right-hander by employing a 7-2 field with men packed on the off-side.

Kohli taps the first ball straight back past the bowler for a boundary to get off the mark in smashing fashion. Two balls later he repeats the shot as Woakes again overpitches for another delightful boundary straight down the ground. This is already looking ominous for England with Kohli getting the middle of the bat right from the start.

But Woakes stuns the crowd into complete silence with the BIG BIG wicket of Kohli, who goes after a wide full delivery but gets an edge as Stokes brilliant catch to his left at second slip. A strange shot from Kohli who intially thought it was a yorker and tries to defend but ends up playing a nothing shot to get the edge. Dhawan is bowled for 11 to leave India in tatters at 25 for three in the fifth over. England bowling short at Yuvraj which on this slow track is sitting up nicely for the left-hander. He pulls Ball twice over midwicket with relative ease for two boundaries in the 36th over as the runs continue to flow for the Indians. This is yuvraj 14th ODI ton has made difference to the team regain strength. Yuvraj slams century, India on course for a huge score: India 226-3 (37 ovs) vs England. Yuvraj hits consecutive fours against Ball as India reach 237/3 in 38 ovs. Dhoni has reached 81.Y Singh (132), 6 runs, 244/3 in 38.2 Overs.India has thus come back from the tattered opening start with solid inning to finish at the end.

With Yuvraj batting 145 an another ten overs left will he score double tons is matter of Yuvraj patients and Dhoni scoring his ton. Yuvraj, excellent a flat six. Rarity to see in ODI cricket.